Learn the Lesson
by DawnFire and Silver Huntress
Summary: As the self-appointed mischief-makers of Hogwarts, they never expected to deal with anything worse than detention. But with two of their number facing deadly consequences, it becomes a race against time to prove their innocence...AU. Bk1.New title & edit.
1. Prologue: Al

**_Prologue: _****Al**

_Scene: Hogwarts; Great Hall; Wednesday, September 1, 1971; early evening_

"Prewett, Alexander!"

A slender red-haired boy walked up to the stool to be Sorted.

But there was something different about this boy. Something that was not immediately obvious, or, actually, visible at all at the moment.

In fact, there were only a few people who knew of this difference, and those people were Professor Dumbledore (the Headmaster of Hogwarts), Alexander Prewett himself, and Alexander's family.

Alexander, or Al, was like most people in that he had quite a few secrets, but his biggest secret was who he actually was.

And only those who remembered that Linda and Xavier Prewett had only two sons had the means to guess at this secret.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Al took off the Hat and went to join his new House.

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_*End Prologue*_

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**And the DADA professor of 1971-1972 is…**

_Jurfarg Ootenshmuk!_

Teaching his first year of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, Professor O. is relatively well-liked, probably for his sense of humor and easy-going attitude. He is a fairly competent teacher, but is not very good in the area of practical Defence, dealing better with Dark Creatures and magical theory.

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**The series: **Series to cover from Marauders' first year to Harry Potter's seventh year. Decidedly AU, although based _extremely_ closely on canon. The first-years of 1971 enter Hogwarts at the rising of a storm. As Lord Voldemort gains power, the time nears when they will have to choose their sides, and choose them wisely. On the eve of September 1st, 1971, four first-years meet and form a long-lasting friendship. Two with questionable sanity, two with secrets, (and later, one with an uncanny knack for putting clues together), all of them mischievous...Hogwarts doesn't stand a chance.

**This book:** As the self-appointed mischief-makers of Hogwarts, they never expected to deal with anything worse than detention. But with two of their number facing deadly consequences, it becomes a race against time to prove their innocence...AU. First in the _Al Prewett, Marauder in Disguise_ series. Formerly titled _Al Prewett; Marauder in Disguise—Year One_.

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**DISCLAIMER:** Yes, I'm J. K. Rowling. I've written a series of books that have made me a millionaire and now I am on writing a story that completely changes the course of practically everything in the Harry Potter series. Do you honestly think I'm that crazy? If I were really J. K. R. and wanted to do that, I would be writing and selling the series: _Al Prewett: The way the Harry Potter series could have been if I had completely changed the storyline._ From this you can hopefully gather that I, DawnFire, am not JKR and am not trying to impersonate her, and that while I do own the majority of the plot and whatever OCs I've put in, I do not own the Harry Potter series and am not trying to make money off of this particular story. I'm only trying to make reviews, honest!

That said, enjoy the story.

~DawnFire~

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Well, here it is: the edit/rewrite of Al Prewett that I've been working on for…about three years, actually. Sorry it took so long. The story is still in progress, but it's reached the point where I can start posting it, so here you go! Enjoy.

_What's different:_ I'm (hopefully) much more organized; better yet, I know where the story is going, and it has a clearer plot than 'let's write a filler year so that I can start their second year with established characters, personalities, etc'. The chapters are longer due to added material—filling in minor plotholes, extending scenes, adding to characterization, and so on—and have also been edited to avoid issues like Al starting four conversations in a row in chapter 2!

I've kept the disclaimers the same, for the most part—just a few small edits here and there. I tend to like the disclaimers.

_And so:_ To the new readers, welcome! And to the old readers, welcome back! There is a time for rambling, but this is not it—so sit back, relax, and enjoy the story!

_Thank you_ for your patience during the editing process,

~DawnFire~


	2. Chapter One: The Start of a Friendship

Handwriting key: Al Prewett **Sirius Black **_James Potter **Remus Lupin.**_

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**_Chapter One: _****The Start of an Indescribable Friendship**

_Scene: Hogwarts; Gryffindor Tower, first-year boys' dormitory; evening of Wednesday, September 1, 1971_

Al was the first one in the dormitory, his dorm-mates being either extremely slow or simply unwilling to enter their dormitory just yet. Unfortunately, this left Al with nothing to do, and so he lay down on top of the bed that had his trunk in front of it with a book clutched absentmindedly in one hand. After about five minutes of waiting for something to happen he sighed, ran a hand through his hair, and laid the book carefully on the bedside table, suppressing a yawn of boredom as he did so.

Putting the book down was a good idea, as it turned out, because soon after the door burst open and one of Al's dorm-mates (fairly tall, black hair) bounded in. Spotting Al, he bounded over and jumped onto the bed, ending up sitting in front of the startled boy with their faces about one foot apart.

"Who're you?"

Al blinked and managed to stop gaping at the much too energetic newcomer. "Al Prewett. If you call me Alexander, I'll hex you. Alex I might answer to. Al is preferable."

"Al it is."

"Wanna do me a favor?"

"Sure, what?"

Al hesitated for a moment. "First, introduce yourself."

"Sirius Black."

"Pleasure. Now the favor." He paused. Sirius stared back at him with innocently eager dark-gray eyes, waiting. He suppressed a laugh at the thought of the other boy's current resemblance to a puppy. "Take your face..." Sirius cocked his head to one side, confused. "...and move it back at least one foot."

Sirius cocked his head to the other side.

"In other words, get your face out of mine!"

"Oh, right." Sirius bounded back and flopped down about two-thirds down Al's bed, lying on his back with his arms splayed and his feet (and part of his legs, he really was rather tall) hanging off the edge. He turned his head so that he was looking at the door.

Al sighed. "What in Merlin's name are you doing?"

Sirius glanced back at him, grinning innocently. "Waiting," he replied.

"Move down or find your own bed, I want to lie down properly and you're in the way."

Sirius looked up, rolled away from Al and onto his stomach, and resumed his watch on the door.

Al stretched out, only to find that Sirius was still in the way.

"Move farther," he commanded.

Sirius turned to look at him again, grey eyes narrowed scornfully. "I'm not moving again, are you mental?"

"Fine then," Al muttered, and kicked him in the side. "Ow!"

Sirius blinked curiously at the redhead. "Why'd you kick me?"

"I didn't know your side was that hard!"

Sirius grinned. "What, you thought I was soft?"

"With the amount I saw you eat..."

Sirius shrugged and went back to watching the door.

"What are you waiting for?" Al asked after a minute of this.

"James."

"Who's James?"

"My friend, James Potter. I met him on the train."

"Oh." Well, really, what else was there to say?

Right on cue, the door opened once more, and another boy (around Sirius' height, messy black hair, hazel eyes, glasses) came in, almost as energetically as Sirius had.

"James!" Sirius greeted, grinning and propping himself up on his elbows.

"Sirius!" came the reply, the accompanying grin wide and happy.

"James, meet Al. Al, meet James. James, don't call Al Alexander or he'll make you regret it."

"Er...right." James turned his grin (now slightly uncertain) on Al, who smiled back at him.

"Al Prewett, pleased to meet you. And Sirius, you moved."

"Doesn't count."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

James laughed and plopped down next to Al in the center of the bed without waiting for an invitation. "What's that about?"

"Sirius said he wasn't going to move again."

"And I'm not," Sirius asserted.

"But you already did."

"I can't hear you!" Sirius replied in a singsong voice, covering his ears with his hands.

"Oh shut it, our other dorm-mates are going to think you're an idiot when they get here."

"He _is_ an idiot, though," James said, and smirked, ignoring Sirius' mock-glare.

"Yeah, but—oh whatever." Al took out his wand and, with a mutter of "inscribo"[1], started to write, almost absentmindedly, on the ceiling.

Al Prewett lives here

It was rather a lame thing to write, he mused, but he couldn't seem to think of anything else.

Sirius looked up, and grinned. "Wicked! How d'you do that?"

Al shrugged. "Just point your wand at the ceiling and say 'inscribo'."

James and Sirius hurried to dig their wands out of their trunks and join Al in writing on the ceiling.

Gryffindor for the Cup!

_James Potter rules!_

**Sirius Black rocks!**

"'Rocks'?" repeated Al. "Yeah, I was noticing how much you're like a rock. Why are you so hard? You're supposed to be soft!"

"No, mate, that's the pillows."

As Al tried (and failed) to look offended and James and Sirius laughed, the door opened again and their third dorm-mate walked in.

This one was an inch or two shorter than Sirius and James, although still taller than Al, had sandy-blond hair, and wore a nervous expression on his face. Finding his trunk, he nearly ran to it, pulled out a book and was about to sit down on his bed when—

"Hey, come join us."

"Yeah, you can help annoy Al—stop kicking me, would you?"

"I think you've broken my foot," Al complained.

Sirius stuck his tongue out. "It's your own fault for kicking me."

Al looked up at the newcomer, who hadn't moved an inch once he had turned to face his dorm-mates. "Come on, join us. There's still room. And I promise that only Sirius—well, maybe James as well—well, I—hmm...Am I the only one who isn't crazy? Besides you? Probably...Well, come join us anyway, we could use another sane person to balance this out."

The newcomer came to join them, still clutching his book, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Al Prewett. Don't even think about calling me Alexander. Alex I might answer to, but I prefer Al."

A short stare, and then a nod.

"Sirius Black."

"James Potter."

There was a pause, during which James, Al, and Sirius waited for the fourth boy to give his name and the fourth boy wondered what they were waiting for.

"Oh!" he said finally. "Remus Lupin."

"Pleasure," the other three chorused immediately, grinning slightly. Remus sat down behind James, still holding his book, and they sat in silence for a minute, each submerged in their own thoughts.

Suddenly, Sirius perked up. "I've got an idea!"

"Merlin help us!" Al groaned. "What is it—'let's all four of us be best friends for ever and ever'?"

"Well—yeah, but not exactly like that—more like let's be friends—"

"For ever and ever," Al finished, grinning broadly.

James shook his head as Sirius glared and Al started to laugh while Remus covered a smile. "No, that's actually a good idea. Just the four of us will be friends—best friends—unless there's someone _really_ exceptional that we want in our group."

Al cocked his head thoughtfully, laughter fading. "That's not a bad idea, you know. Right: so the four of us—unless our last dorm-mate is really exceptional—will be best friends. No matter what."

"No matter what," James and Sirius repeated.

They all looked up at Remus, who was watching them a little sadly.

"Well, it's the four of us, mate, repeat it!"

Remus started, and stared at them. "You want me in your group? You actually _want_ to be friends with me?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Yeah, you seem alright."

"Yeah, of course." Al suddenly got an expression of comprehension on his face. "I get it. You have some sort of secret that you can't—or won't—tell us, and you're afraid that if we know what it is we won't want to be friends with you?"

Remus started. "Well, I...yeah...sort of..."

"Don't worry about it, mate, I've got a pretty big secret of my own."

"There's no way it's bigger than mine."

"It's at least as big."

"I'd suggest comparing secrets, but then they wouldn't be secrets anymore."

"Too true," Al agreed. "So, what do you say? Best friends with the three of us, no matter what?"

Remus looked rather appraisingly at the three of them for a few seconds, then nodded. "No matter what."

"Brilliant!" Al grinned. "We were just writing on the ceiling, feel free to join in; the spell is 'inscribo', just say it, aim your wand at the ceiling, and write!"

Remus gave him a doubtful look, but glanced up at the ceiling and then grinned. Taking out his own wand, he aimed it at the ceiling, activated the spell, and wrote:

**_Remus Lupin is home_**

Al suddenly remembered that he had wanted to stretch out, and proceeded to do so, squirming around for a few moments before ending by thudding his feet down on Sirius' back.

"Ow," complained Sirius. "What'd you do that for?"

Al shrugged, smirking slightly. "You said you weren't going to move, so I decided not to bother arguing about it. In fact, I figured you wouldn't mind too much if I use you as a footrest, seeing as you'll inevitably become one if you refuse to move..."

Remus stifled his laughter behind one hand. James didn't even bother to try hiding his laughter, and he nearly fell off the bed as a result.

Sirius mock-glared up at Al. "No one uses Sirius Black as a footrest!"

Al grinned cockily back at him. "Well, mate, you'd better get used to it, 'cause I'm not movi—argh!"

Sirius had leapt at the redhead, and they scuffled briefly before falling onto the floor. Sirius had his new best friend pinned down in a matter of seconds.

"What's with the Muggle fighting?" Al gasped out, trying unsuccessfully to shift Sirius' grip on his arm.

Sirius stared. "Don't you know how?"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"I never learned, because I thought that anyone attacking me would be using a wand!"

Sirius shook his head. "Disgraceful. I'll have to teach you."

"You'd better," grumbled Al. "Seeing as you'll probably attack me whether I can fight back properly or not."

"'Course I will," Sirius grinned. "How else would I have fun?"

Al glared. "Git."

"Prat."

"Annoyance."

"Nuisance."

"Am not!"

"Are so!"

"Am not!"

"Are so!"

"Are so!"

"Am n—oh, no, you're not catching me that easily! Are so!"

"Git! Am not!"

"Are so!"

"Am n—"

"Will you two stop it already?"

Sirius and Al looked up/round, to find that the speaker was a slightly annoyed Remus.

"Yes Remus," they chorused.

James laughed.

Al looked up at him, and scowled. "Potter! You took my place!"

And so he had.

James just grinned. "Well, you weren't using it..."

Remus shook his head as Al scowled and Sirius laughed.

"He's got you there, mate."

"No he hasn't. Lemme up, I'm gonna hex him."

Sirius smirked. "Let's start your first lesson in Muggle fighting, Prewett. You want to get up, you do it on your own." His smirk broadened as he watched Al take in his pinned-down state.

"Haha, very funny. Now get off."

Sirius shook his head. "No, I'm serious. And Sirius, though that's not the point. If you want to get up, you'll have to get out from under me first."

Al scowled. "Git."

Sirius grinned. "I know. You'll thank me later, Prewett."

"No I won't."

Sirius just laughed. "Go on, then. Weren't you going to hex James?"

Al scowled at him, nodded, and started trying to free his arm. Sirius obligingly loosened his grip on it for a moment before returning full pressure, making Al's arm go back down the inch it had come up.

"Pretty weak, Prewett," James called from his comfortable seat on Al's bed.

"Shut it, Potter," Al returned in annoyance. "I hate you, Black."

Sirius just grinned winningly. "Keep on trying, Prewett, you won't get free by talking."

"Oh yeah?" Al retorted. "If I can reach my wand, then I can get you off me using words, no problem."

Sirius widened his eyes. "But that would be cheating!"

Al glared. "You annoying, annoying git."

"Thanks, I try." Sirius' grin was back full-force.

Al ignored him. "I mean, honestly, what do you think _you're _doing right now, if not cheating?"

Now it was Sirius' turn to glare. "I'm not cheating! Just because I happen to know more, and be stronger—it doesn't mean I'm cheating!"

"Sounds like cheating to me," Al retorted.

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is too!"

"Is too!"

"Is not! Why didn't that work?"

"Lifetime of bickering like this. Is too!"

"Is _not_!"

"Will you two shut it?"

And on that note, the door opened and their last dorm-mate entered the room.

All four turned to look at him.

He was a short, mousy-haired boy, rather plump and completely ordinary looking.

"'Ello," James greeted him. "Who're you?"

"Er—Peter Pettigrew," squeaked the newcomer, seeming rather startled to be addressed.

"I'm James Potter."

"Remus Lupin."

"Sirius Black."

"Al Prewett."

Peter blinked, overwhelmed. "Pleasure," he said finally, still squeaky. Al was starting to think that he always sounded like that.

There was a long silence.

"Are you exceptional?" Sirius asked suddenly, somehow managing to cock his head to one side, look at Peter almost straight on, and still keep Al pinned down.

Peter gave him an odd look. "Er, no, I don't think—"

"Oh." The tone was dismissive. Remus frowned a little, but no one seemed to notice (except for Peter, who didn't comment).

Al wriggled suddenly, moving almost an entire two inches.

Sirius looked back at him and grinned. "Making progress, Prewett."

Peter Pettigrew gave them an odd look, but said nothing as he quickly changed and got into bed, closing the curtains around him. Within seconds the other four heard soft snoring.

James yawned. Remus imitated him. Sirius, realizing that both he and Al weren't far behind them, loosened his grip, letting Al take the chance to get out from under him.

The moment the smaller boy was free Sirius yawned once more and fell to the floor, asleep.

Al looked blearily up to where James and Remus still sat on his bed. "Chuck us a pillow, would ya?" he yawned at James. "I don't have the strength to kick you off my bed."

And indeed, he looked ready to fall asleep on top of Sirius.

James yawned again and tossed one of the pillows. It hit Al in the face, as he raised his arms too slowly to catch it.

"Thanks, mate," came the redhead's muffled voice as he slumped backwards into a rough sleeping position.

James' reply was a garbled "You're welcome." Seconds later he had fallen asleep, still on Al's bed.

Remus, with all intentions of going to sleep on his own bed, had fallen asleep already with one leg stretching towards the floor.

Al himself had fallen asleep about two seconds after the pillow (courtesy of James) had hit his face.

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[1]Latin for 'write on, inscribe'

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******DISCLAIMER:** I will happily take credit for the _Al Prewett, Marauder in Disguise_ series-in fact, if someone else tries to take credit for it, I will be most unhappy-but I refuse to take credit for any plot, ideas, objects, places, characters, etc. that appear in the original Harry Potter series and are used here. Thank you for listening, and please proceed to the chapter, which I hope you will enjoy reading at least as much as I enjoyed imagining and writing... Shalom (Peace/Hello/Goodbye in Hebrew), ~DawnFire~

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**SEVERAL NOTES FROM THE ORIGINAL A/N (and some new stuff):** Welcome to the story! I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) If you've read the original posting of this story, try and read this as a new story. It's been majorly reworked and added to-so, while large pieces of the first chapters are similar to what you may remember, there is a lot of extra material as well.

Just a quick reminder that this is an AU story...so while I'm basing this very closely on the canon, there will be changes. You can probably tell that by now.

_(It may turn into what I call Behind the Scenes canon. I'm still figuring that out. Right now, just go with 'it's AU but based closely on canon'. The rest of the headache is mine.)_

If you were wondering, the writing on the ceiling will become important later on. Just wanted to get that out there.

Please review, and if you have any ideas for things that you want to appear later at any point during their seven years at Hogwarts, please suggest them and I may use them. Only give me suggestions if you don't mind me using them, though I don't know why you'd suggest something if you didn't want it to be used... :)

Yours,

DawnFire


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